A large percentage of chairlifts on ski and snowboard mountains do not have rests for the rider's feet while the rider is riding the chair up the mountain. This creates a major inconvenience for a chairlift rider using a snowboard. When a chairlift rider is wearing a snowboard, the snowboard is only attached to the front foot. The orientation of the foot across the snowboard is close to perpendicular. The front foot is not centered on the board and an uncomfortable twisting load is transferred to the foot and subsequently the ankle and knee of the rider. This is not a major inconvenience for skiers because a skier has one ski on each leg and the weight is evenly distributed.
This problem has been felt since the inception of snowboarding. Known approaches to solve this problem include different types of tethers to the board that are either connected to the rider or attach to the lift, and features added to the snowboard to support the weight of the snowboard with the rear foot. Tethers can be complicated and uncomfortable to attach to the body when that is the design. Tethers can also be difficult and dangerous to hook and unhook while on the chairlift. It is also an extra part to carry around. One known feature that may be added to the snowboard is a base plate that is mounted between the binding and the board. Attached to the base plate is a hook that the rider can use to support the load of the board with their back foot. This design can affect the performance of the snowboard by changing the stiffness due to the added attachment plate. The plate also raises the height of the back binding. Further, this relatively large and complex assembly would not be inexpensive to manufacture and would be difficult to assemble. Some of the other designs require adding holes to the snowboard as part of the design. This is undesirable on many levels and would void the warrantee of the snowboards.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improved techniques of snowboard design, which enable a chairlift rider to support the weight of the snowboard with his back foot while not affecting the performance of the snowboard.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.